Hundreds of board members from across Seventh-day Adventist unions, conferences, missions, and educational and health institutions in Inter-America will have the opportunity to take part in a special online training on Wednesday, Sep. 14, 2017. Inter-American Division (IAD) top church leaders will conduct the orientation event from the headquarter office stationed in Miami, Florida, United States.
Are Millennials concerned about human rights, social justice, and religious freedom? The answer may surprise you, according to a panel of young experts, leaders, and activists during a session held recently at the 8th International Religious Liberty Association World Congress held in Hollywood, Florida, United States.
When it comes to human rights, social justice, and religious freedom, Millennials—a generation between 16-36—are a force to be reckoned with. Millennials possess certain traits that make them a unique group of young people with the potential to create change, panel experts said.
Stanborough Park, the headquarters estate of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the UK and Ireland, was transformed on the weekend of August 11-13. In a major celebration of 500 years of the Protestant Reformation, the event saw a coordinated program involving all departments of the British Union Conference (BUC) church region working together.
The event received tremendous support from church members, but more importantly, from the local community, as over 2,000 people enjoyed one or more of the various programs offered.
Leaders and participants at the 8th International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) World Congress reaffirmed their commitment to promoting religious freedom and seeking peaceful coexistence as the three-day conference concluded in Hollywood, Florida United States, on August 24.
The more than 550 attendees, guests, presenters, and government officials from 65 countries discussed the relationship between religious freedom and societal stability, including protection of other human rights and economic development. They recognized that threats to religious freedom and other beliefs are serious and are on the rise.
In the wake of the violent Charlottesville, Virginia attack that left a family grieving, 19 others injured and a city in shock, Seventh-day Adventist worshippers made their way to the downtown promenade where residents and visitors gathered to post messages of comfort, love and hope on giant chalkboards erected in the town square.
In front of a large chalk sketch of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman who died after being struck by a car that plowed into a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally in her city, church members and leaders prayed and placed red roses and a handmade prayer chain for her family. Then, they headed to 4th Street where they planned to sing, pray and recite “The Lord’s Prayer.”
The Protestant Reformation is not a historical event frozen in a distant past, said a panel of leaders and scholars at the International Religious Liberty Association’s 8th World Congress in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, United States, on August 23. On the contrary, the watershed 16th-century occurrence must be revamped and rethought if we are to make the most of its core principles, they said.
“It is important we include the Reformation in the context of religious, peaceful coexistence,” said Andrews University Professor of Church History and International Religious Liberty Institute director Nicholas Miller, who moderated the panel. “After all, reformers Luther and Calvin also persecuted Anabaptists.”
Every day, thousands of innocent people around the world—many of them children—experience abuse. Abuse comes in many forms—domestic violence, rape, child sexual abuse, human trafficking, female genital mutilation (FGM), and many other horrific forms.
As Seventh-day Adventists, we condemn abuse in all of its forms and embrace the healing ministry of Jesus “to preach the gospel to the poor . . . to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives . . . To set at liberty those who are oppressed . . .” (Luke 4:18-19, NKJV).
With the unprecedented massive movement of migrant and refugees around the world today, religious freedom experts and advocates at this week’s 8th International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) World Congress discussed the ongoing global response so far and explored ways to better address the needs of millions–including their religious rights–who are forced to flee from their homes and cross borders.
“Religion pours $1.2 trillion into the US economy every year,” said social scientist and director of International Religious Resources at Pew Forum Brian J. Grim. “That is 50 per cent more than America’s six largest oil companies.” Grim’s startling fact-sharing was part of an introduction to an updated report on the state of religious freedom around the world, on the opening day of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA)’s 8th World Congress in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, United States, on August 22.
Loma Linda University’s School of Allied Health Professions has introduced a bachelor’s degree in diagnostic medical sonography, expanding the program from a certificate degree to meet the needs of the industry that is increasingly seeking graduates of a four-year program.
Applications are now being taken for the program’s first bachelor’s degree co-hort. The priority deadline to apply is October 15, with a final deadline of December 15.
